Last month I shared my goals for February, and today I'll be talking about how I did during my February goals as well as my March goals.

February Goals Update

Monthly goals that I accomplished: I was able to draft my ebook! I'll be editing it soon and hopefully, you'll be able to get it in May or June! We celebrated Von's first birthday (read about it here!) and I got a massage. I wasn't able to make it to the temple last month, but I'm hoping to go in March. Weekly goals: I did write and publish 2 blog posts each week! But I didn't reach out to many brands. I had 1 TV free day each week and that was so much fun. I didn't make $100/week as I'd hoped, but I did earn some money this month! And we are still struggling to have family scripture study, but I did start reading a few verses out loud to Von every day. Daily Goals: Mostly good on the spending freeze, and kitchen pickup. Still struggling with biting my nails and kneeling prayers but we'll get there!

Let's get into my goals for March!

My top priority this month is growing my faith. I want God to be at my center again and this month I'd really like to refocus on Him.

Monthly Action Items:

Go to the temple. It's been way too long since I went to the temple and I'm ready to go again. It's on my calendar and rain or shine, I'm going to go.Prep for General Conference. April is coming which means General Conference is coming too (read my post about getting the most out of GC) I'm hoping to listen to talks from the past conference and think about questions I have.Finish Uploading Pictures from computer to Google Photo. I'm hoping to make some physical photo albums this year, but I really just want all of our pictures backed up to start. I started this in January but I need to get this finished!Celebrate Griffin's Birthday. Griffin turns 25 this month, and I'm not sure what we'll be doing yet, but I want to do something fun as a family.Create rules for my spending freeze + officially start my spending freeze. I read The Year of Less in February and I'm feeling inspired. We've got some debt we want to finish paying off this year and we'd like to build our savings. Which means we need to be better about what we're spending our money on. I'll be sharing a full post all about this at some point this month, but the spending freeze has officially begun!Start one freelance writing job. I've been looking into freelance writing a lot and I want to take a leap and give it a try. I'll be doing a little more research about this, and then I'm going to get my first freelance writing job.Find a new doctor. We've been in Colorado for a year now, and besides giving birth last year and my ER visit on January first, I haven't had a regular checkup in a while. So, I'll be looking for a doctor here in Colorado.Pay $200 on our credit card. One of our debts is a credit card. We have a few other credit cards that we pay off every month in full, but we have one that still has some money on it. But I want to get that number down this month!Evaluate my social media and blog goals + prep for my social media break. I love Instagram, that's something I talk about a lot! I also love blogging, but as we're ending Q1 and approaching Q2 I want to evaluate how I did the first three months of the year and what I'd like to do differently in Q2. I'm also planning and prepping for a blog and social media break in April so that I can focus on writing my book! I'll be working out all the details for that this month.

Weekly action items:

Personal Progress Experience. When I was in Young Women's (the program for girls ages 12-18 in my church) I did Personal Progress. At the end of 2019, Personal Progress will be changing into something new. In my current ward (congregation) all the members of the Relief Society (women above 18) were invited to participate in Personal Progress. What PP is, is different faith-promoting experiences to help you grow your faith and understand who you are as a daughter of God. I'll be doing one experience each week, and hopefully, I'll share about them with you in some of my Sunday blog posts.Gratitude journal 2-3 times. I'm really working on being grateful and looking for the good in my life. I want to record my gratitude in my journal more regularly. I know that when I look for the good I see more of it and I want to see more of it every day!

Daily Action items/habits:

Pray + Scripture study. I'm focusing on growing my faith this month and I want prayer and scripture study to be a better part of my daily routine.Read with Von. I love reading outloud with Von and this month I'm going to make sure we do it every single day!Yoga. I want to be more active as well as connect my mind and my body. I started doing yoga every night last week and I knew that I want this to become a habit!Write. I also started working on my book last week. It's a story that I originally started writing when I was in high school. I'm taking the original idea and changing a few things and honestly, I'm in love with the story and the characters! I have been waking up a little bit earlier so that I can get some writing in before Von wakes up, but my goal for March is to write for at least 20 minutes a day! (This also doesn't include writing blog posts, just working on my first draft.) Those are my goals for this month! I feel like it's a lot less than I've had in the past (and more goals that will be more of a one-time thing instead of a daily habit.) But I'm ready to slow down, let God in, and spend time with Von (and write my book!) What are some of your goals this month!?

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Read my full disclosure here. A few months ago I bought myself a desk because I wanted a work/writing space that would be just mine. Funny though, most of my writing doesn't take place while I'm sitting at my desk (unless Von is sleeping like she is right now.) But I am feeling grateful for my desk and excited about this post. At the beginning of January, I shared my big picture goals for 2019 (you can read that post here if you missed it!) Then after getting the flu at the very beginning of the year, I didn't end up writing my January goals. But I asked on InstaStories and you voted to have me share my February goals here on the blog, so here we are! There's a lot so let's dive right in! I have my goals broken down into things I'll do monthly, weekly, daily throughout February.

Monthly Goals

My #1 goal for 2019 is to love my people well. To do this I am going to go on a date with Griffin, Celebrate Von's First Birthday,and finish tidying up. In February I'm also hoping to go to the temple and work through the Bible faith study that I created (grab your free copy!). I'm gonna be completely honest. I LOVE going to the Temple, but it's been over a year since I've gone (hey, I had a baby so I have an excuse) but I do want to start going again. It's on the calendar and I'm ready! For blogging and social media this month I'll be drafting my ebook (I'm so excited to share this with you once it's done!) and I'm planning to attend my first ever blogging event. There are a few groups of bloggers that do things locally here in Denver and I'm hoping to go and meet new bloggers. I can't wait! And my last goal for the month is to get a massage. Griffin got me a massage for Christmas and it's time to use the certificate and treat myself. I've also never had a professional massage before so I'm both nervous and excited about the experience.

Weekly Goals

Blogging and Social Media + freelancing

I am aiming to share two blog posts every week! One on Sunday and one on Thursdays. I've got content scheduled, I just need to write it! In February, I am also going to be reaching out to a few brands that I've been wanting to work with. I am diving into the blogging world even more and want to have some sponsored content on my blog. I'm excited to start working with more brands and sharing them with you. I have the incredible opportunity to be part of a 6-week social media coaching program. I'm really excited for this and it starts on February 5th! I want to show up each week to the live session with questions + apply what I'm learning every week. And my last weekly goal for blogging/freelancing is to make $100 a week.

Love myself

One of my big picture goals is to love myself. And once a week I want to have a TV-free day and instead of watching TV while Von naps I'm hoping to read more or write or paint my nails. Basically, I want to use my time a little better and practice self-care every day.

Love my people well + Grow my faith

I want to have an adventure with Von every week. There's a moms group that I'm a part of, but I rarely go to the activities because Griffin has the car during the day. So, I'm either going to take him to work or reach out to the other moms. Either way, once a week Von and I will be going on an adventure. Family Scripture Study. I shared on Sunday how we've been struggling to study the scriptures as a family. But. With the new Come, Follow Me curriculum I really want to make more of an effort. I am planning to read the scriptures (and Griff too) at the beginning of the week so that we can have our family study on Thursday or Friday night, or sometime on Saturday. Still working out when will work best, but we will get a set time for that this month!

Daily Goals

Spending freeze on wants. I did okay with my spending habits during January. But in our goal to more financial freedom, I know I want to spend less. I'm having a spending freeze in February on any of the fun things (cause obviously we've got to pay for rent and food ;) But I will hold off on anything that I want.Kitchen Pickup. Our kitchen has been a major stressor for me lately because I can't seem to keep it clean. I'm going to set a 10 minute time each night to do a quick pick up. Stop biting my nails. I've been a lifetime nail biter (it's a gross habit and I hate it) and I did stop for about 3 years during 2012-15 and then my anxiety got really bad and I started again. But I loved when my nails looked pretty and I want them to be that way again (this is my motivation!) Every week I'll be painting my nails (cause I don't bite them if they're painted) and hopefully, this will help me kick the habit, it helped last time! Kneeling prayer. I am really great at praying while almost asleep as I'm in bed, but I want to have more meaningful prayers and I know that kneeling will help. I want to have at least 1 kneeling prayer a day. Comment on one blog. I love meeting and connecting with other bloggers and I want to support more of you! So, M-F every week I'll be commenting on at least one blog! These are the goals I'm tracking in my PowerSheets planner. This is my first year using Powersheets and I love this little book so much! I use it to track things that I want to change or make sure I do. I don't have reading goals or snuggle Von goals because those are things that I'm doing every day already. In February I'm really focusing on connecting with my family and with other bloggers. I'm excited to see what happens this month! Do you set goals each month? What are your goals for February?

The other day I sent my sister a Snapchat of my goals for December. I have them written out in my bullet journal so that I can keep track of them. She immediately responded asking if I could tell her how I set goals and keep them. We talked yesterday and I told her what I do, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I'm sharing how I set meaningful goals with you today.I've always loved the end of the year. It means Christmas, family time, my birthday and the end of the old year and beginning of the new. I realize that January 1st really is an arbitrary date, you can start new goals and change your habits any time you'd like, but for me, January 1 means a fresh start, a new year, full of 365 new days. So, even though I know that I don't have to wait till January 1st to start working on my goals (and really, I don't!) I still think it's a great time of year to reflect on what went well in the past and what I want to change in the next year.

Focus on the big picture.

One thing that I've been learning recently, is that my goals work better when I'm focused on the bigger picture. Where do I want to be at the end of the week, month, year, or five years? In PowerSheets there is a page that has you write out where you want to be when your 80. This seemed overwhelming to me at first, which is why I really thought about where and who I'd like to be in a years time. For now, this small step of looking at the bigger picture really helped me see where I wanted to set my goals.I'll be talking a lot about PowerSheets in this post and in the future, know that this is a tool that I love, otherwise, I wouldn't be sharing it with you! This link is an affiliate link which means if you make a purchase I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want your life to be filled with at that time?

These are questions that I've been asking myself, and even though some of my goals look the same as they have in the past, I feel like I will be more motivated to actually work on them, because I have the bigger picture in mind. Having the big picture, or eternal perspective really helps me know where I'd like to end up, so I know what I need to do now to help me get there.

What are your passions, loves, and the things that are most important to you? Make those things a priority.

As we move into 2019, I realize that I can't do it all. There are hundreds of things that I want to do in my life, but I can't do them all right now. (And I may never get to some of them, and that's okay.) In this season of life, I'm learning that I need to focus on the things that matter most. At the very beginning of 2018 I heard about PowerSheets and thought they would be a great tool to help me accomplish my goals, but I didn't want to make the investment. I wasn't quite ready. And that's okay! Which is why I used a bullet journal system to track my goals this year.And it worked, but I also knew that I wanted to try Powersheets in 2019. For me, this goal setting planner was worth the investment because in the prep work pages I've really been able to get to know myself better, see the things that really matter most, and as I've set goals, I know that they are things I really want to accomplish.

So, I have my big picture goals broken down into smaller bite-size goals.

I break down all of my goals into daily, weekly, and monthly items. Things that I can actually do that will help me reach that bigger goal. My main goal for 2019 is to love my family well. I want Von and Griffin and Persephone (and extended family) to really feel of my love. For me this looks like snuggle time with Von, putting my phone down when we're all together, and planning date nights with Griffin. With this goal, I'll also be working hard to make our home a safe and spiritual place for us to live and gather, and I'm hoping to finally print some photo albums. These things are important to me and I know that at the end of 2019 I'll feel good in knowing I did love my people well.Everyone's goals will look different. Our seasons of life are all different. And even though there is part of me that just wants to do it all (be a mom and a business owner and an author and a blogger and a great chef and a good friend and a million other things) I can only do so much.In 2019 I'm planning to focus on the things that matter most to me and really cultivate them. That is what makes my goals meaningful because I'm not just setting goals to set new goals, I'm really working towards a bigger picture goal. And this year I'm using Powersheets to help me do that.

Goal setting can be simple and meaningful all at the same time.

Focus on the things that really matter to you.Look at the big picture, where do you want to be at the end of 2019? What do you want to have focused on and accomplished? Who do you want to be?After answering those questions you can come up with a few big-picture goals like "love your family well" and another one of mine is "be a writer" and "use social media intentionally" and then you can set small smart goals to help you reach that bigger one.

How do you set goals? I'd love to hear about your process!

Also, if you are interested in ordering PowerSheets tomorrow (December 12) is the last day to order to get your PowerSheets by Christmas (in the US)!